“Actually, I’m from the Confidential Committee on Moral Abuses.”
“Committee of ‘Moral Abuses’?”
“Yes, ma’am. There’s been some reports that the management has been taking liberties with the artists in this place.”
Dialogue between Rick Deckard and Zhora Salome, taken from Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner, 1982.
Photos by Rick Stachura. 242 West 53rd Street. September 20, 2017.
This is the 62-story cannibal with 426 condo eyes that ate the Roseland Ballroom. In its second incarnation, Roseland reigned here from 1956 to 2014. Its three-storied concert hall began life as a skating rink in 1922.
For the tower to reach such heights, developer Algin Management employed 58,392 sq ft of unused air rights it acquired from the Broadhurst and Majestic Theaters on West 44th Street. It could do so because here in the Special Theater Subdistrict, zoning allows owners with landmarked theaters to sell their air rights to anyone in the area.
The cost to Algin? $17,517,600 or — more importantly — $300 per sq ft.
And why’s that notable? Well, according to Douglas Elliman’s latest sales report, the average condo in Manhattan is currently going for $1,965 per sq ft. Seems like the Shubert Organization, owner of the Broadhurst and Majestic, sold off their air rights at a discount, no? Whatever the deal, I’m too mad to write any further. I still miss going to Roseland.
(This story was originally posted to my old Tumblr site on January 7, 2018.)